First, thank you for all of your positive thoughts for us as we approach yet another hurdle. I didn’t want to share until I knew more, and today we do.
The news is cautiously good, a little bad and somewhat ugly. First, the bad: Ray has two tumors in his right lung, one quite large (baseball-sized) and one quite small. The large one is in the middle right lobe, the small one in the bottom right lobe.
The good: through CT scan and fine needle aspiration, the big one has been determined to be a primary tumor and the cytology indicates they are Bronchoalveolar carcinomas. In other words, they are NOT metastatic tumors that have originated from somewhere else and we are pretty sure they are the least serious type of primary lung tumor that he could potentially have. The nerve sheath tumor that resulted in his foreleg amputation a little over a year ago is totally unrelated.
The ugly: Surgical removal of both affected lobes is the advised treatment, and that’s what we’re going with. According to the oncologist, Ray will still have 75% of his lung capacity post-lobectomy. This surprised me, frankly, but apparently the middle right lobe is kind of an extra that isn’t used much, as the dr explained it. Unfortunately, the main tumor is large. The docs aren’t sure if the second little tumor is an indication of spread or is an “incidental” tumor.
The prognosis is up in the air. On the plus side, Ray has hardly any symptoms at this point. He sounds congested in the chest sometimes and maybe coughs once a day, if that, and has never coughed up blood. He still has a great appetite and is alert and active (although we are being careful to keep him as quiet as possible.) Also, the tumor is on the periphery of the lungs and his lymph nodes appear to be unaffected. All of these factors will work in his favor. We are being told that if all goes well, the surgery should buy him at least a year. It could possibly even cure him, but we won’t know until the tumors are tested in the lab after surgery. Of course, if he makes it through all of this, we’ll be doing follow-up x-rays every 4-6 months for the rest of his sweet life.
So that’s where we’re at. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. Please send pawsitive thoughts – we’re going to need a truckload.